Russian motorists enraged by elite's flashing blue lights

By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow

12:01AM GMT 13 Feb 2006

Hundreds of cars paraded in slow convoy through Moscow yesterday to demand the abolition of Russia's most hated emblem of official privilege.

Perhaps nothing symbolises quite so potently the gulf between Russia's uber classes and the rest of the country as the flashing blue siren, or migalka, affixed to the top of the elite's chauffeur-driven luxury cars.

A hangover from Soviet times, the migalka confers on its owner the right to roar down the wrong side of the road at high speed, often disregarding traffic lights and careering on to pavements.

In a country that has become politically apathetic under Vladimir Putin's increasingly autocratic though still popular presidency, few issues energise ordinary people quite so much.

Protests were also held over the weekend in 17 other cities, one of the most co-ordinated exhibitions of public anger seen in Russia in recent years.

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"The blue light should be the preserve of the emergency services, not a badge of immunity for the elite and their relatives and friends," said Katya Zhitkovskaya, a manager who took part in one of the Moscow demonstrations.

The Kremlin claims it has started to clamp down on the issue, awarding migalkas only to the emergency services, senior government officials, judges and members of the Russian parliament.

But Vyacheslav Lysakov, head of the Free Choice Motorist's Movement that organised the protests, said the migalka was still freely available to those prepared to pay a £30,000 bribe for one - or for those with political connections.

Migalka owners are blamed for adding to Russia's horrific death toll on the roads - 95 people are killed in road accidents every day in Russia and 700 more are injured.

Giving the campaign a political tinge the protesters highlighted two cases.

In the first, a Siberian railway worker, Oleg Shcherbinsky, was jailed for four years last week after a judge ruled he was to blame for the death of a regional governor in a car accident because he did not get out of the way quickly enough.

Shcherbinsky said he did not see the governor's migalka limousine, which was allegedly travelling down the wrong side of the road at over 100mph, as he attempted a left turn.

The second involved the eldest son of Sergei Ivanov, the defence minister, who was travelling in a car last year that killed a 68-year-old woman on a zebra crossing. Charges against Alexander Ivanov were quietly dropped.

While slogans calling for the release of Shcherbinsky and the arrest of Ivanov will have worried the government, the real cause of Kremlin consternation will be the black and orange ribbons many of the protesters tied to their cars.

Black was chosen to represent the death of justice, organisers say, while the orange bears undertones of Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" in 2004, when flag-wielding protesters succeeded in forcing a Kremlin-backed candidate to step down after a rigged election.

"Our ribbons are small and discreet, not like the big orange flags in Kiev," said Yuri, a banker who did not want to give his surname because he feared reprisals. "They are saying 'we still have patience, but our patience is not unlimited'."